By Isabel Hamilton
Journalism Intern
As a wonderfully tight-knit community, many Lakesiders will recognize this week’s keynote speaker — not from his popular CBS News series “Everybody Has a Story,” or his Emmy award-winning contributions to the world of broadcast journalism, — but from seeing him on the streets of Lakeside with his family.
CBS Evening News contributor and long-time Lakesider Steve Hartman will return to the Hoover Auditorium stage at 8 p.m. Tues-day, July 18, to deliver a keynote lecture focusing on his newest series, “Kindness 101.”
Whether traveling the country for his weekly feature “On the Road” or crossing an ocean for his award-winning segment “Everybody in the World Had a Story,” Hartman showcases humanity, kindness and heartwarming stories through his work.
“On the Road” takes Hartman across the country to hear stories from people of all ages and backgrounds, from a teen who walked two hours to his eighth-grade graduation to a wrongfully convicted felon meeting his pen pal of three years. This popular segment airs Fridays on “CBS Evening News” and repeats on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
In “Everybody Has a Story,” Hartman chose interview sub-jects by throwing a dart at a map and looking through the local phone book. The series ran for seven years beginning in 1998,during which Hartman produced more than 120 pieces.
Due to the success of “Everybody Has a Story,” Hartman upped the series to a global scale in 2010 with “Everybody in the World Has a Story,” which began with an astronaut at the International Space Station.
Following the original concept, Hartman found these international stories by spinning a globe, pointing to a random location and booking a flight. In just one month, he traveled around the world twice.
Before joining “CBS Evening News,” Hartman developed his passion for human interest stories while working as a feature reporter for a CBS station in Los Angeles. Hartman also worked as a columnist for “60 Minutes Wednesday” and was a correspondent for two primetime CBS News shows, “Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel” and “Coast to Coast.”
Hartman graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. His career began at WTOL in Toledo where he worked as a news intern and general assignment reporter.
Hartman also has deep roots in Lakeside, where his family has spent time each summer for six generations.
Some of Hartman’s segments have even featured Lakeside. In 2009, a piece titled “The Most Honest Town in the Country?” aired on “CBS Evening News,” showcasing our little community on Lake Erie and all it has to offer.
Lakeside’s favorite pastime, shuffleboard, also made an appearance on Hartman’s “Assignment: America” in 2011. Featuring one of the many youth shuffleboard tournaments each summer, it proclaimed the activity “not just for old people,” and featured interviews with several young prodigies on the courts.
Hartman was also the narrator for the WGTE documentary “Lakeside Chautauqua: An American Treasure.”
Hartman’s keynote lecture on the Hoover Auditorium stage will discuss his series “Kindness 101,” which shares stories built around themes of kindness and character and is often cohosted by his children, Meryl and Emmett.
So far, this series has focused on themes of service, empathy, optimism and listening, to name a few. “Kindness 101” has featured an enthusiastic bus driver from Texas, inseparable best friends with a “soul” connection, a hairstylist offering free haircuts to the homeless , and many more uplifting stories.
